The end of a year is always busy – and this year especially so for N2Africa. While we work on the final reporting on many milestones and on the consolidated report of Phase I of the N2Africa project, we are winding up for Phase II. Adverts for the staff positions are posted on the website – and Phase II officially starts on the 1st January 2014. Please help us to circulate these as widely as possible. The success of N2Africa depends on pulling together a winning team! ...

Planting beans at a primary school in Kikurunge, Usambara Mountains

Jori Langwerden and Elise Bressers, two MSc students from Amsterdam and Wageningen, are currently working in the Usambara Mountains, northern Tanzania. The Usambara Mountains are an important bean growing area because of its favourable climatic conditions and natural resources. However, many of the production areas are located on steep slopes which are intensively cultivated and highly degraded over the last couple of years. Jori and Elise have set up several experimental field trials within the area of Lushoto district to study the soil and plant nutrient deficiencies of common bean, and how the production can be improved with use of Rhizobium inoculation and fertilizers (especially P and K).

Following on from a visit by Dr Mahamadhi Dianda (IITA) to LegumeTechnology in June this year to learn about quality control methods, I met with Dr Bruce Knight at his factory near Nottingham in the UK to discuss his involvement in Phase II of N2Africa. LegumeTechnology manufactures high quality, zero contamination inoculants for markets throughout the world, and consistently achieves the N2Africa AA standard. ...

Photo: Liam Cooper operating the injection machine

During March 2012, while surfing the web for information about inoculants in Africa, I, Pedro Lage read in N2Africa Podcaster # 12 that "the N2Africa proposed strategy suggested was "to import high quality inoculants, and focus on ensuring an effective supply chain for inoculants in the areas where N2Africa is working until we know that there is sufficient demand to warrant local production". I wrote an email to Dr. Ken Giller offering him samples for trials and since then we have been mailing from time to time. Recently, he asked me to write a small report on what we are doing in Africa. My idea is to set a comparison between the development of inoculants in my country and what N2Africa is doing. ...

In August 2012 Amaral Chibeba started his PhD research in Mozambique under the supervision of Dr. Mariangela Hungria (Embrapa), Dr. Maria de Fátima Guimarães (Universidade Estatual de Londrina) and Dr. Stephen Boahen (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture)

We enjoy sharing the summary of his study. ...

Photo: Amaral Chibeba during thinning on 11 December 2013

The Moroccan Association of Microbiology (AMM) and the African association for Biological Nitrogen Fixation (AABNF) will organize the 16th congress of the AABNF and the 4th international congress on microbial Biotechnologies under the topic of the integrated soil fertilization management 2 (ISFM2), from 2 to 6 November 2014, at Ecole normale Supérieure, Mohamed V-Agdal University, Rabat, Morocco.

For more information see their first circular.
 

L’Association Marocaine de Microbiologie (AMM) et l’Association Africaine de Fixation Biologique de l’Azote (AABNF) organiseront le 16 ème congrès de l’Association Africaine de Fixation Biologique de l’Azote et le 4ème congrès international des Biotechnologies microbiennes sous le thème de la gestion intégrée de la fertilité des sols 2, du 2 au 6 Novembre 2014, à l’Ecole normale Supérieure, Université Mohamed V-Agdal, Rabat, Maroc.

Pour plus d’ information veuillez consulter leur première circulaire.